Wednesday, October 31, 2007


by Robert Kiyosaki

Silver Is Still a Bargain

There's an old saying that goes, "It's a recession if your neighbor loses his job. It's a depression if you lose your job."

Watching the financial news networks and reading the financial publications these days, you'll see many people asking if the U.S. economy is heading into a recession. From my vantage point, the answer is yes. I believe that for many people in certain industries, like real estate, the worst is yet to come.

Economic Ripple Effects

Before getting into why I think there will be a recession, it's important to know the specific definition of the term. Very simply, a recession is a decline in a country's gross domestic product (GDP) for at least two quarters. That means that by Christmas we'll know if we're in a recession or not.

In some ways, the coming recession is a product of the physical phenomenon known as precession. Precession is the effect of bodies in motion upon other bodies in motion -- or, more simply, a ripple effect, like when you throw a stone into a still pond and the waves emanating from it overlap.

While there are many such processional "waves" in the coming recession, one is the lack of integrity in the U.S. monetary system. The United States has defaulted on its financial promises many times in recent history. In 1934, we defaulted on domestic gold redemption. That year, it became illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold. Instead, the government required Americans to turn in their gold, and they were paid $20 in paper money for every ounce of gold they surrendered.

Once the gold was collected, the government raised the price of gold to $35 an ounce. Talk about a lack of integrity. And in 1968, the U.S. defaulted on silver redemption, taking U.S. dollars backed by silver out of circulation. Finally, in 1971, the U.S. defaulted on international gold redemption.

International Impact

Another reason for the coming recession is the subprime mess. And while issues related to the subprime fiasco may seem domestic, they actually have severe international consequences. The subprime mess seems to be a problem associated with lower-income people who can't afford their homes, yet it's really the tip of a very large international iceberg, and it'll affect all of us. Here's why.

In the Sept. 12, 2007, issue of Business Week, Kerry Capell asked the question, "Could any country be more exposed to the credit crunch than the U.S.?" The answer: "You bet, and that place is Britain."

Unlike many of its European neighbors, Britain shares many of America's financial traits. In the last few years, access to cheap credit in Britain has fueled a decade of economic growth, with home prices tripling in 10 years -- an even faster rise than in the United States. With cheap borrowed money, the English consumer has caused the British economy to boom; consumers are responsible for two-thirds of the British economy.

Today, Britain is more dependent upon financial services than we are. So what will happen to the world if both England and the United States go into a recession? The precessional effect is bound to be dire -- especially for working people.

Too Much Money

As strange as it may seem to the average person, the problem is not a shortage of money -- it's too much money. The world is choking on too many U.S. dollars.

Normally, when a currency gets into trouble as the dollar is now, all the country has to do is raise the interest rates on their bonds and things are fine again. But because of the subprime meltdown, the Federal Reserve can't simply raise or lower interest rates.

In simplified terms, the Fed must keep rates low in order to save the domestic economy. This causes the international economy to dump the dollar by not buying our bonds, which is one reason why the price of gold keeps going up -- it's the true international money. And the rise in its price (and in the price of oil) signals the loss of the purchasing power of the dollar; the world simply doesn't want any more dollars. This is a ripple effect from 1971, when the dollar came off the gold standard.

Less for More

The tragedy of this excess of money is that most of the world's workers have to work harder to earn less. This is because the currencies of the world are becoming less and less valuable. Even if workers get pay raises, the boost won't be able to keep pace with declines in the purchasing power of money, increases in expenses such as oil, decreases in the value of homes, declines in the value of stocks, and increases in taxes.

Just look at what's happened in the last decade. Ten years ago, gold was about $275 an ounce. Today, it's over $700. That means that, compared to gold, your income would've had to go up by 250 percent just to keep up with the loss in purchasing power of the dollar. Or, compared to oil -- which was about $10 a barrel 10 years ago and today is over $80 a barrel -- your income would've had to go up by 800 percent.

Sure, there are many people whose incomes have gone up way beyond 800 percent in the last 10 years. The problem is that most people's incomes haven't kept pace, and they're technically in a state of personal recession with no way out.

Throw Yourself a Lifeline

As the global economy continues to gyrate, you'll hear more and more people calling for the Federal Reserve to either lower or raise interest rates. The problem is that the Fed has less and less power to do much.

If it tries to save the domestic economy, the international economy will pound us. If the Fed tries to save the dollar internationally by raising interest rates, it'll kill the domestic economy.

Instead of looking to the Fed to save you, then, I recommend you save yourself by investing in real international money. One way to do so is by purchasing silver. Gold is expensive, but silver is still a bargain even for the little guy. When the recession comes, the ripple effect on your financial future will be immeasurable.

Monday, October 29, 2007

This article is also available at http://banners.pinnaclesports.com/banners/pulse/pinnacle_pulse.asp

Recognizing Value - the Key to Gaining a Gambling Edge

Risk is part of everyday life, more so than most people probably realize. From crossing the road to the more obvious financial decisions such as buying a house, or starting a business, all involve varying amounts of uncertainty which must be considered. Gambling is the purest expression of risk, yet even when presented with a seemingly simple choice of potential outcomes for an unknown event, such as a football match, many bettors display a worrying ignorance of the concept of value and the fundamental mathematical principals involved. In simple terms, if a bettor cannot recognize 'value' they will never be a long term winner.

Take a look at this seemingly simple mathematical puzzle, known as the Monty Hall paradox (named after the host of 'Let's Make a Deal', a popular US show in the 60's & 70's which formed the basis of the poser):

An unbiased game-show host has placed a car behind one of three doors. There is a goat behind each of the other doors. You have no prior knowledge that allows you to distinguish among the doors. 'First you point toward a door,' he says. 'Then I'll open one of the other doors to reveal a goat. After I've shown you the goat, you make your final choice whether to stick with your initial choice of doors, or to switch to the remaining door. You win whatever is behind the door.' You begin by pointing to door number 1. The host shows you that door number 3 has a goat.

Do you gain value and see your chances of winning the car increase by switching to Door 2 or do you stay with Door 1 as it has an equal chance with only two doors left to choose from? When this question was posed in Parade magazine, 10,000 readers complained that the published answer was wrong - including several maths professors.

The assumption of 'equal probability', while being intuitively seductive, is wrong. The simple answer is to always switch doors. The car is behind one of the two closed doors, but you have no way of knowing which. Most contestants intuitively see no advantage in switching and assume that now there are only two doors, each must have an equal probability of revealing a car. In fact, your chances of winning the car actually double by switching to the door the host offers. If you switch, you gain value as theoretically you now have a 2/3 chance of winning the car. If you stayed with your original selection you have just a 1/3 chance of winning.

The principle is underlined by increasing the number of doors to 100. If 99 doors have a goat behind them and only one has a prize, if the player picks a door and then the host opens 98 of the other doors that were all shown to contain goats and then gives the player the opportunity to switch, the intelligent player would switch. The reason being that on average, in 99 out of 100 times the other door will contain the prize, as 99 out of 100 times the player first picked a door with a goat.

This article is taken from Bettingadvice.com

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

www.talkandshare.com

Dear Readers,
Please be informed that I have created a Community Website known as "talkandshare.com".
Everyone is requested and welcome to join this Community.
Registration is free and easy. It will not take you more than a few minutes to get registered. After registration, you can start your chit-chat and have your say posted at your own convenience. All new postings will be at the new website. Posting at blisswise will be few and far between.

Please register early and make your presence felt. Thanks in anticipation.
Together, let us make this website interesting, meaningful and educational.

Our motto is: Share to Prosper. Click here to join.
With best wishes and regards,
Ben